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Just when we thought it couldn’t get any colder, the temperatures plunged again, and it was minus 12 outside our kitchen window this morning. There’s no need to rush out though; in the nearby village of Adelboden there’s a World Cup slalom race and we can watch it on telly. Manchester boy Dave Ryding amazed everyone by finishing on the podium in third place. Here he is on the right.

By now the temperature had risen to a slightly more comfortable minus 5, and we headed out for a walk. It’s nice to get away from the village centre and see some of the quaint old houses.

We’re expecting the usual suspects for dinner later. I’m going to do fish and chips.

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Anne-Marie and Paul paid us a visit last night, We had hirsch (deer) stew with mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli.

This morning Val was up early to go to the hairdresser, and this evening she’s babysitting for Beanie and Sandro. My challenge is to see whether we can somehow watch Austrian TV, and it doesn’t seem to be easy.

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It’s a lovely day, but much colder than it looks.

It’s the last day of the school holidays, lots of parents hanging around the bar on the nursery slope awaiting their kids.

The snow garden for tiny tots.

We’ve got guests for dinner tonight, so I’d better get slicing and dicing in the kitchen.

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Last night Colin cooked a French dish called tartiflette. It’s potatoes, onions and bacon bits, topped off with Reblochon cheese.

To say it’s filling is a bit of an understatement.

While we were eating the temperature was dropping outside, and this morning it was minus 8 on the balcony, and minus 14 up the mountain. With the restaurants all closed that would be pretty uncomfortable, so we settled for a wander around the village. Lots of people tobogganing – the Swiss kids are still off school.

We’ll have a quiet night in tonight, before more entertaining tomorrow.

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Gloomy again today, and very cold, and we had some snow overnight. The big tent to the right of the tourist office is a Corona test centre for the staff looking after the races. Apparently they’ll all be tested every day while the races are taking place.

Later on, as temperatures plunged, the fog began to disperse, and we got an amazing sky.

Colin is cooking tonight, so we’re expecting something French.

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Val is still under contract to ski school this week, so she has to be up and ready to go each morning. No call came today though, so we ambled down to the railway halt at Wengwald and caught the train down to Lauterbrunnen.

Here we change to the Interlaken train which headed off down the valley. Swiss trains are renowned for their punctuality, but with snow and sub-zero temperatures things do go wrong, and sure enough our train broke down at Zweilütschinen. They fixed it within about 15 minutes and we were off again. 15 minutes lost meant 15 minutes less shopping time, but we sprinted around the Co-op and were soon back in Wengen.

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The fog lifted today, so for a while at least we got to see the sky and the mountains. The Lauberhorn ski races start next week, so the courses have to be built. Safety netting and a TV tower have appeared at Canadian Corner.

Wengen is still bustling. The Swiss kids are still on holiday, so there are plenty of visitors.

One of our central heating radiators has stopped working, so at lunchtime I called the plumber. He arrived about 90 minutes later and had fixed the problem within half an hour. Amazing!